7 February 2007

And You Were There, and You…

Every Tuesday it’s English-language movie night at the Theatre Le Casino, so last night the three of us went to see Little Miss Sunshine. When our daughter’s English teacher asked her students if it would be suitable for showing to the class (8th grade, or quatrieme in the French system), one of the boys assured her that “it’s appropriate for f***ing six-year-olds.” He might have been overstating the case; still, we all enjoyed it immensely. Inspired in part by the movie, I had this dream:

I’m driving through the suburbs of some large-ish nondescript American city — Cincinnati comes to mind. It’s daylight, and I am alone. I’m not quite sure where I am, so I pull over and get out of the car. A woman comes up to me: I don’t recognize her, but she seems to know me. She tells me that Stacy’s house is just up the street. “How lucky is that?” I think to myself, though until that moment I hadn’t known I was looking for Stacy’s house. (Note from the waking world: Stacy had previously emailed me that she would like to write stories like Little Miss Sunshine.)

A meeting is going on at Stacy’s house: several wooden tables are set up in the living room, with maybe twenty people in attendance. Somebody says something like: “Thank goodness for emotions!” Everyone expresses enthusiastic agreement. I’m troubled by it. I say: “Why? Most of my emotions are unpleasant.”

I see Jason sitting at another table (I have no idea what Jason looks like). “It’s like Jason’s mystical experience,” I say. (Jason wrote about his mystical experience here.) The guy sitting next to me looks at me with a puzzled expression. He’s wearing a black see-through shirt decorated with some kind of floral needlework. I realize that his name too is Jason. (I think he was based on the uncle in the movie, the gay Proust scholar who had tried to kill himself.) “No, not you,” I say to this Jason.

I turn to the other Jason, the real Jason. “Your mystical experience in Chicago (I’m from Chicago). You transcended; you had an ecstatically happy convergence of realities. Most of the time for me it’s an incredibly dark convergence, very depressing. I don’t enjoy these experiences.” Jason seemed to see my point, as did the rest of the group.

And that’s the end of the dream, or at least what I remember of the dream.

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I had a dream once that God decided to start over with the whole creation thing, and you were the only one that survived. God wanted to let you do the naming and provide meaning to the next creation because you were the only person in human history who really understood what was going on in Genesis 1!

Hey sorry I haven’t gotten to commenting on this yet. Thanks for the tribute, I guess you could say. And yes, I get it. As well I would like to state, for the record, that I’m very not gay :) And Little Miss Sunshine is hilarious – one of the few movies where you don’t see the endng coming, too.

So, Jonathan, if God decides to let you back into the next creation, what name do you want? Not promising anything, but… Great dream. And yes, I will keep you posted about dream sequels on Jason.

And Jason, you seem awfully insistent about this whole non-gay thing. Okay fine, you’re straight, whatever, sheesh… As for the movie, the kid’s talent show really was pretty great. Also, the dad’s trying to hustle his 9-step program for winners reminded me of myself writing a book proposal, trying to make myself sound like some kind of winner when I know I’ve got the big L indelibly stamped on my forehead. The flu? Any weird fever dreams to report?

Nope, no weird fever dreams, suprisingly. While awake, though, the sprinkler head in my room (part of the fire suppression system in the building) doesn’t seem to want to stay in one place sometimes. And what I like about the movie especially is that…unlike most movies these days…its just well done. It has a rhythm, a flow. AND that rhythm is in line with the story/”content” of the film. Its like good music in that sense, where the lyrics and the music are saying the same thing. Very uncommon.

In the American mythos every quest, every pilgrimage is undertaken by car and ends in L.A. When the grandpa died I was suddenly reminded of The Grapes of Wrath. I noticed the music a few times — sort of melancholy or wistful even during very funny moments, which I thought added a poignant texture. Everyone lost something along the way: if you’re going to be a real loser you’ve got to lose something.

Hi,
I had a light touch of flu. What I like of your dream is that it is a gathering. You will find a publishing house in the US? Maybe thanks to a friend. The wooden tables make me think of (religious, philosophical) learning and you will meet new interesting people of different tables (beliefs) who will care about you and see you as a friend.
now that was my poor attempt at free association or dream explanation.